John Carter of Failure?

Public media loves nothing more, than spreading the word of bad news. Since no one wants to be late for the party, they start spreading the bad news as early as possible. Even more so, they start to fabricate their own bad news, by spilling the beans, using the viral nature of negativity and generating a self-fulfilling prophecy. They have forgotten their responsibility towards the people, towards the human lives they touch with their work. You may ask, “why start a blog-post about a movie called John Carter, by talking about such a hefty topic?” The proof reason is in the pudding.

John Carter is a character from a novel called A Princess of Mars. Many, if not most of you reading this, have never heard of him, but you’ve seen his legacy in one way or the other; be it through the vistas of Tattoine, the technological mystery, the mythical aspects of the strongest media license in history: Star Wars, or you’ve seen the six-legged creatures in Avatar, met the reluctant hero stereotype in countless books and movies. All these were inspired by the creative creation of Edgar Rice Burroughs, who wrote his stories at the beginning of the last century. Many of the examples I just listed, are verified by their creators, they list Burroughs as their source of inspiration. It’s not a secret hidden agenda of a fanboi speaking.

Along comes the cynical media. The beast that always stirs. Sniffing for a carcass to rip, or if the need be, the potential helpless prey, that can be turned into such a dead piece of meat. After the first shots of the green men of Mars, the vistas of the red planet had been released, the wheels of bullshit were in full motion.

That looks like Avatar, just with green aliens

We already have one Star Wars, we don’t need another

We cry foul at this poor mans imitation of Avatar

I cry foul at the ignorance on display. I cry foul at the short-sighted, intolerant, destructive behavior of the beast media. They couldn’t wait; couldn’t offer a chance. They had to attack like a group of hyenas, a lonely wandering lion. A strong, proud lion. How could they attempt to bring down the creative creation of a hundred years worth of history? How could they destroy the work of so many talented individuals involved in this production? A production they hadn’t even seen. The lion was doomed from the start.

After the hyenas had charged and taken a couple of bites, more and more of the foul beasts came along, everyone with a mouth full of acid to spit over the poor thing, that was down on the ground, before it had ever taken a step on the savanna. An unable marketing campaign ruined the chance for the public to attach to the project, despite the doom and gloom saying of the ignorant media. The prophecy was fulfilling itself.

But the beasts weren’t satisfied. After bringing down any hope for a big opening weekend, they lay waiting. The lion got back up and the start of the movie was upon the world. They already knew what was going to happen. After they had done their utmost best to kill the project, the lion still opened with a 30 Million weekend in the US (it’s nothing brilliant, but it is far from a total disaster). That couldn’t be! They wanted it to be the biggest failure in movie history, or else their bullshit would not be true, so the hyena horde attacked again. It struck and bit; it pissed and spat. The beast had to die a horrible death, the defeat had to be perfect, or else… Cynical media.

Though I couldn’t help but to remind myself who drives the media. The media is a reflection of ourselves. A reflection of the culture we’ve created. Cynical media? Or cynical you? Think about what you consume; what you reward with attention. They only write, about what you want to read.

… oh and: go watch John Carter! Don’t believe the cynical media, the negative hype. Make up your own mind. It won’t change your life, but you’ll have a bloody good time, guaranteed!

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3 Comments

What a marvelous entry and oh how very true! You have echoed my very thoughts and the pains that we fans of John Carter have gone through in trying to pull those rabid Hyenas off that majestic Lion. We are but fragile, fleshy people, and even with hundreds – thousands of us trying to right these infuriating wrongs, it seems most only heed the Hyenas hideous laughter and won’t even give the Lion a chance. What a sad, sad thing. Still, we fight on. Thank you for this! It could not have been expressed better!

Hello there! This post couldn’t be written much better!
Reading through this article reminds me of
my previous roommate! He constantly kept talking about this.
I will send this article to him. Pretty sure he’s going to have a great read.